Cheers to Elevators: Married to the Mob at 35

Cheers to elevators! You meet the nicest people in them.

Angela De Marco

On August 19th, Jonathan Demme’s absolutely sublime 1988 comedy Married to the Mob celebrated its 35th anniversary. The film tells the story of a former bridge-and-tunnel mob wife (Michelle Pfeiffer), who seemingly never felt comfortable in such a role, trying to find herself with a fresh start in the Big City. Married to the Mob features an all-star supporting cast—Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell, Mercedes Ruehl, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Platt, Nancy Travis, Joan Cusack, Chris Isaak and more!—all of whom seem to be having a blast. The soundtrack is as eclectic as it is memorable, which is typical of Demme’s films. This is also the film that proved to the world Michelle Pfeiffer could carry a movie. Not only that, it showed how expertly she could bring to life a role that called for a seamless blend of drama and comedy.

I positively adore Demme’s endearingly odd slice-of-life comedy. Married to the Mob lives so close to my heart because the movie itself is nothing but heart. Blissfully free of cynical posturing, instead the film revolves around themes of hope, love, and redemption. It’s also hilariously eccentric and gloriously weirder than most mainstream comedies. The characters are fleshed out by their idiosyncratic behaviors, with Michelle’s more grounded Angela De Marco at the center of a cast full of oddballs and eccentrics.

That’s not to say Angela isn’t as eccentric as the other oddballs. She’s charmingly, adorably awkward in most social settings and says heartfelt, goofy stuff—like the quote at that top of this post—with such earnestness that you can’t help but fall a little more in love with her every time she opens her mouth. Yet even when she’s not speaking, Angela’s eyes and facial expressions reveal how she’s feeling inside. I’ve said this countless times, but Michelle Pfeiffer’s ability to convey emotions just using her mesmerizing eyes is second to none. Demme understood this, wisely framing much of Angela’s emotional journey in tight closeups of Michelle’s stunning face. She’s positively luminous in this film, and the performance stands right alongside the best she’s ever done.

That Demme made this and The Silence of the Lambs (1991) is proof of his impressive elasticity as a director—he could literally do any genre and pull it off with aplomb. He really was one of our finest America directors, especially during his peak years. His camera movement in Married to the Mob adds such energy to the film. In one memorable shot, as Angela and Mike dance wildly in a Caribbean restaurant on their first date, Demme places the actors in a tight closeup as the camera spins rapidly around them. The shot is bursting with euphoric energy, mirroring the way Angela and Mike feel as they fall for each other.

Besides the satire, Married to the Mob also features one of the sweetest, most adorable romances of the eighties, between Pfeiffer’s Angela and Modine’s eccentric (there’s that word again) FBI Agent Mike Downey. Mike might be assigned to tail Angela to build the FBI’s case against big mob boss Tony “the Tiger” Russo (Stockwell), but he’s not immune to her inner and outer beauty.

To say Mike approaches his job, and his life, in an unorthodox manner, would be an understatement. He gets dressed using a needlessly complicated, Rube Goldberg–style contraption. His surveillance methods on Angela are hilarious and utterly absurd, including working behind the supermarket deli counter (how did he know she’d be there??) and impromptu-jumping into a street-side doo-wop act for cover. Mike’s goofball charm is the perfect match for Angela; they’re both dorks at heart. Together—just like Married to the Mob itself—they’re simply sublime.

Everything builds to a suitably madcap ending, as the mob and FBI tangle with Angela in the middle of it all, followed by a sweet and romantic coda for Angela and Mike. Few films have ever brought me more joy than Married to the Mob. Happy 35th to one of my truly treasured New Yawk movies. For me, it’s always Angela De Marco Forever.